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PragerU Sues Google And YouTube

The conservative nonprofit — which creates educational videos for public viewership — filed its lawsuit Monday night in a San Fransisco federal court, alleging that YouTube has violated its First Amendment rights by censoring some of its videos, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Google/YouTube uses their restricted mode filtering not to protect younger or sensitive viewers from ‘inappropriate’ video content, but as a political gag mechanism to silence PragerU,” the lawsuit says.

“We believe everyone should have a voice. Since our founding, free expression has been one of our core values,” YouTube said in a March blog post, advertising its advocacy for free speech. But “there’s a difference between the free expression that lives on YouTube and the content that brands have told us they want to advertise against,” it added, seeking to make a distinction in order to censor some content.

Since 2016, YouTube has limited access to more than 36 PragerU videos, which also means that potential add revenue from those videos was cut off as well.

I applaud PragerU for the effort, I wish YouTube and Google were more inclusive but at the end of the day YouTube is a private company.
If the share holders are 'ok' with this censorship then there is little to be done, YouTube can do with its 'web site' what it wants.

No 'Public Accommodation' argument should be made or attempt to re-brand YouTube as some sort of Broadcaster to be regulated by the FCC or other Regulations under the FTC.

Prager should save its money and put up its own Web Servers Streaming its videos .... YouTube maybe the 'goto' streaming video site

Oh Well

We’re tempted to suggest a conspiracy here — but it’s just liberals agreeing yet again that conservatives have hidden, evil motives, because modern liberals simply can’t conceive of any other reason to disagree with the liberal consensus.

“Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.”

I applaud PragerU for the effort, I wish YouTube and Google were more inclusive but at the end of the day YouTube is a private company.
If the share holders are 'ok' with this censorship then there is little to be done, YouTube can do with its 'web site' what it wants.

We’re tempted to suggest a conspiracy here — but it’s just liberals agreeing yet again that conservatives have hidden, evil motives, because modern liberals simply can’t conceive of any other reason to disagree with the liberal consensus.

“Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.”

Prager himself put it more simply: "Google, and their wholly owned company YouTube, apparently believe they can pick and choose who has free speech in this country."

We can't comment on how solid the legal ground is under the lawsuit, but it's painfully obvious that Prager has a point about YouTube's arbitrary and capricious handling of its videos.

One of them deemed inappropriate, for example, is a discussion with esteemed Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Another is about e-cigarettes, and another is titled: "Ten Commandments: 6, Do Not Murder."

How exactly is a video admonishing against murder "inappropriate" for sensitive viewers?

One of the "demonetized" videos was a PragerU Live talk with Bret Stephens, who is now a New York Times columnist.

PragerU also has compiled a long list of its videos that YouTube has restricted, along with similar videos that aren't.

The best one: YouTube labeled a PragerU video titled "Why America must lead" as inappropriate, but not a video by Sen. John McCain titled … "Why America must lead."

It even found instances where the exact same video was restricted when it appeared under the PragerU label, but not when it was posted by someone other than PragerU.

We’re tempted to suggest a conspiracy here — but it’s just liberals agreeing yet again that conservatives have hidden, evil motives, because modern liberals simply can’t conceive of any other reason to disagree with the liberal consensus.

“Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.”